Since the imposition of martial law, the country’s five largest cryptocurrency exchanges have recorded spot trading volume of over $34 billion in the past 24 hours, breaking an all-time high.
According to data from CoinMarketCap, over the past 24 hours, the combined cryptocurrency spot trading volume of Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, and Gopax reached $34.2 billion in the 24 hours ending 10:30 AM ET.
Trading volume in South Korea has surged nearly 50% since Dec. 2, when it broke the previous record of $18 billion and outpaced the stock market by 22%. This surge is interpreted as being triggered by domestic unrest following President Yoon Seok-yeol’s declaration of martial law. Martial law was lifted after six hours.
According to local media News 1, domestic traders rushed to sell cryptocurrency on domestic exchanges, causing the price to drop to 88 million won. Some exchanges have experienced site outages due to rapid increases in trading activity.
Korea’s largest exchange, Upbit, accounted for the largest share of today’s cryptocurrency spot trading volume with $27.25 billion worth of cryptocurrency. Bithumb ranked second with spot trading volume of more than $6.14 billion over the past 24 hours.
Meanwhile, cryptocurrency exchange Coinone recorded trading volume of more than $531 million in the past 24 hours. Korbit followed with $192 million worth of cryptocurrency trading volume, followed by Gopax with about $9 million.
Martial law in South Korea came into effect from 23:00 (KST) on December 3. Citizen protests were banned and the media was controlled by the government. The country’s parliament and political groups were banned from taking action to challenge the law.
The reason why Prosecutor General Yoon decided to invoke martial law was because he claimed that it was a necessary preventive measure to protect the country from ‘North Korean communist forces’ and ‘remove anti-state forces.’ But many speculated that this was a desperate move to combat domestic pressure that could lead to the president’s impeachment.
How has martial law in Korea affected the cryptocurrency market?
Immediately after martial law was declared, political unrest struck Korea. As politicians denounced Minister Yoon’s decision as illegal and unconstitutional, thousands of South Koreans rushed to the heavily guarded National Assembly building to protest.
According to the BBC, video from the scene showed some protesters fighting with police at the gates. Even regulators had to scale fences to enter polling places to override martial law.
As crypto.news previously reported, cryptocurrency prices in South Korea have plummeted along with the Korean won. The price of Bitcoin (BTC) fell from the 88 million won range to the lowest since October 5. Ethereum (ETH) also fell to 4.2 million won, breaking a new low.
Meanwhile, prices of other altcoins such as Ripple (XRP), Stellar Lumens (XLM), and Solana (SOL) plummeted by double digits.
This apparent decline in cryptocurrency prices occurred as investors rushed to liquidate their assets amid political turmoil. Similar selling occurred following the start of the war in Ukraine and the COVID-19 pandemic.